Hydraulic fracturing is a stimulation treatment routinely performed on oil and gas wells in low-permeability reservoirs. In such treatments, specially engineered treatment fluids are pumped at high pressure and rate into the well to create fractures extending perpendicularly from the wellbore in opposing directions according to the natural stresses within the well formation. Typically, a proppant, such as grains of sand of a particular size, are mixed with the treatment fluid to create a plane of high-permeability material through which production fluids can flow. The proppant remains in place once the hydraulic pressure is removed and therefore props open the fracture to enhance flow in the wellbore.
Such fracturing operations are very common and require large amounts of proppant. Accordingly, a need exists for efficient storage and transportation of fracturing proppants.